Deck Tech: Aluren with Martin Goldman-Kirst

It has been a little while since we’ve seen some Aluren performing on the Open Series, but that’s exactly what Martin spent the early rounds doing, with a quick undefeated start thanks to Joe Bono's Aluren list.

For the uninitiated, Aluren wins by sticking its namesake enchantment into play. Once that’s done, Virtually every creature in the deck gains flash and costs zero mana to play—the only exception is Venser, Shaper Savant.

Because you can go off at instant speed, Show and Tell is an incredibly dangerous card for your opponents!

The most obvious combo is Cavern Harpy, which lets you reuse the effects of any blue or black creature at the cost of 1 life. Simply play the Harpy, stack its gating trigger, and return a Parasitic Strix/Dream Stalker/Coiling Oracle to your hand. Then pay 1 life, and pick the Harpy back up, recasting your returned creatures again. Dream Stalker lets you reuse any other creature, generally Imperial Recruiter or Eternal Witness. The goal is to get to the Parasitic Strix and Harpy, which will actually flat kill the opponent.

Imperial Recruiter can search for any creature in the deck, help to setup the combo turns in advance and functioning as a freeroll with Aluren in play. He’s costly on the market, but essential to the archetype—one reason we don’t see it very often!

Gitaxian Probe lets you check if the coast is clear, and has especial synergy with Cabal Therapy. One of the nice parts of Aluren is that it has a fair bit of disruption alongside all these creatures that generate minor value. It’s not so uncommon to see someone getting beaten to death by a bunch of 1/1s that drew a card! Force of Will is a card that can defend whatever you’re doing, make use of excess creatures or Intuitions to counter whatever you need.

With the deck totally based around tiny creatures already, it makes sense to see a number of bullets with bodies in the sideboard. Kataki, War’s Wage, Ethersworn Canonist, and Yixlid Jailer are pretty obvious choices against Affinity, combo, and Dredge. I like Peacekeeper and Llawan a fair bit as well, with Merfolk on the rise. This deck can convincingly protect a Peacekeeper, which is nice.

Thoughtseize offers additional disruption against decks that can actually stop you, while the remainder of the sideboard is removal. Martin came prepared to fight some creatures, and with the field filled by Goblins and RUG decks so far, he appears to be in good shape. Martin was especially appreciative toward Joe for granting him access to the deck in the first place!

I’m looking forward to seeing if this deck has what it takes to make a go at the Top 8—of all the dirty combo decks you can play in Legacy, it’s one of the most entertaining!